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[CNJRoss]

Railway Age, 7/2/21
 

Five Takeaways From COVID-19’s Impact on Railroad Staffing

 

As it has with everything else in the world, COVID-19 has impacted railroading in a variety of ways—and staffing is one of them. Here are five takeaways from this past year, around what to expect and potential ways to alleviate the impact of each.

 

1. Staffing Efficiencies Closely Tied to Safety and Resiliency

2. Adopting Digitization to Keep Workers Safe and Evolve

3. Emerging Sustainability Expectations

4. Hiring and Furloughing Practices Require Rethinking

5. Eliminating Assets Requires Precision Maintenance

 

Details here.

[CNJRoss]

Trains  Newswire  8/5/21

As volume rises, CSX feels pinch from crew attrition, tight job market

 

Problem strikes CSX harder than other Class I roads

 

 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Last month, CSX Transportation CEO Jim Foote lamented the shortage of people who want to work in train and engine service.

 

“No way did I or anybody else in the last six months realize how difficult it was going to be to try and get people to come to work these days. It is an enormous challenge for us to go out and to find people that want to be conductors on the railroad, just like it’s hard to find people who want to be baristas or anything else,” Foote said on CSX’s July 21 earnings call. “It’s very, very difficult.”

 

Foote’s railroad is not delivering carload freight on time, largely due to CSX’s inability to hire enough conductors. Like other railroads, CSX furloughed train crews last year at the onset of the pandemic. Now volume is back, but fewer furloughed employees than expected wanted to return.

 

Continue here.

 

Cross-posted in 'Railroad Industry & Coronavirus' and 'Freight Railroads.'

[CNJRoss]

Railway Age, 9/8/21

 

CN: Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccinations for Canadian Employees

 

All CN employees in Canada are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Nov. 1, the Class I railroad reported on Sept. 8.

 

 

“Safety being a core value at CN, this measure will contribute to protecting the health of its employees, customers, and the communities in which it operates,” the railroad said.

 

Vaccinations apply to employees and new-hires of CN and its subsidiaries in Canada, as well as CN’s contractors, consultants, agents, suppliers and anyone who accesses CN’s Canadian properties. According to the railroad, requests for medical or religious exemptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

 

The move, CN said, is “in line with the measures announced by the government of Canada in order to ensure the safety of its employees and keep the North American economy moving.”  . . .

 

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[CNJRoss]

UPRR  Inside TrackI blog, 9/28/21

 

Supply Chain Challenges: We’re All in This Together

 

By Elise Gosch, AVP-Marketing & Sales-Premium Intermodal

 

Union Pacific's Global 4 intermodal ramp in Chicago.

 

 

As the nation’s consumers face empty store shelves, six-month delays for items that used to be in stock, and limited availability of their favorite items; they are asking a simple question: What’s going on?

 

Changes in consumer purchasing habits during the pandemic, labor shortages in trucking and warehousing, and final-mile delivery delays are all contributing to industry-wide shortages in the U.S. In the same way healthy arteries and veins ensure our body functions properly, the global supply chain keeps our national economy thriving and growing. And that supply chain is not healthy right now.

 

SNIP

 

To keep shelves stocked, delivery times low, and products readily available, every link in the integrated supply chain must work in a precisely coordinated sequence. This requires every player – steamship lines, port terminals, trucks, rail, warehouses, freight asset owners, and the beneficial owners of the cargo – to keep the freight flowing at the same pace. If one cog in the machine stalls or gets out of line with another, the entire system slows down or can even grind to a halt.

 

More here.

[CNJRoss]

BLET NEWS FLASH 

 

Unions join to fight Union Pacific on COVID orders

 

CLEVELAND, October 15, 2021 — The Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) are jointly taking on Union Pacific Railroad (UP) over a series of unilateral and unlawful actions taken by the carrier recently.

SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson and BLET National President Dennis Pierce issued the following joint statement regarding their action:

“Over the past two weeks, the Union Pacific Railroad seems to have forgotten that it is not Walmart. The railroad has unilaterally changed pay provisions for vaccinated employees who experience a breakthrough COVID infection due to workplace exposure. It has ordered all UP employees to report that they are fully vaccinated by December 8th, or risk being medically disqualified from work. And, instead of negotiating with us as the law requires, the Carrier is directly dealing with its employees by offering a ‘financial incentive’ for compliance with its unilateral mandate.

“We generally support our members getting the vaccine. However, we have several objections to UP’s unilateral implementation of their policies mandating them and illegally dealing directly with its represented employees. The members of our Unions — including members who already are vaccinated — are irate over UP’s outrageous conduct.

“We have been in contract negotiations with UP since November of 2019, and federal law absolutely bars railroads from changing rates of pay, rules and working conditions while negotiations are ongoing. Not only is UP in violation of the law, it has explicitly spurned our demands that these matters be bargained. We have filed suit today in the United States District Court for Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in an effort to stop UP’s lawlessness in its tracks.”

 

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[CNJRoss]

RT&S 10/18/21

 

Union Pacific requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for employees

 

Union Pacific has joined the ranks of companies, including railroads, to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for its employees. 

 

The railroad posted the following statement on its website:

 

“After reviewing the White House’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Union Pacific is complying with the executive order requiring employees of federal contractors be fully vaccinated  . . .

 

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[CNJRoss]

Progressive Railroading, 11/11/21

 

BNSF joins Class I legal battles with unions over COVID vaccine mandate

 

 

BNSF Railway Co. has joined other Class Is that have filed lawsuits against rail unions that are fighting implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, a company spokeswoman confirmed yesterday.

 

BNSF's stance had been that an employee's decision to get the vaccine was personal. But, the railroad implemented a vaccine mandate after the Biden administration required federal contractors to implement a vaccine policy. BNSF is a federal contractor.

 

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[CNJRoss]

BLET NEWS FLASH

 

Vaccine cases with two Rail Carriers consolidated in Illinois court

 

 

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio, November 22 - On November 17, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois consolidated multiple lawsuits that had been filed in the Illinois federal court, including ones by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and two other rail unions challenging two Class I carriers' implementation of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

 

Both Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern announced in October that they would issue company-wide mandates that offered incentives for unionized employees who receive the COVID-19 vaccination and potential furlough for those who do not.

 

The unions argued that the carriers' unilateral implementation of their mandates bypassed the collective-bargaining process and filed separate injunctions seeking that the status quo be maintained until the bargaining process be completed. The November 17 ruling combines those matters with legal action previously taken by Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern.

 

Along with the BLET, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD) and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) are involved in this case.

 

[CNJRoss]

BLET NEWS FLASH

 

BLET, SMART-TD suit seeks immediate halt to BNSF and Metra vaccine mandates

 

 

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio, December 3 - The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) have filed motions for preliminary injunctions, seeking to immediately halt unilaterally implemented vaccine mandates imposed by Metra commuter rail and BNSF Railway, and require the carriers to negotiate over the issue.

 

Through the motions, the BLET and SMART-TD seek to restore and preserve the status quo that was in place prior to the implementation of the mandates.

 

These suits are in addition to the counterclaims BLET and SMART-TD filed against the carriers last month. As background, BNSF on November 7, 2021, and Metra on November 8, 2021, filed suits against the BLET and SMART-TD, among other unions, seeking a declaration from the Courts that their unilaterally implemented vaccine mandates concerned a so-called "minor dispute" subject to arbitration on the grounds that it involves a matter of interpretation of the parties' existing collective bargaining agreements. The carriers also sought orders prohibiting the BLET and SMART-TD from striking, picketing, and taking other job actions in protest of the mandate.

 

BLET and SMART-TD answered and counterclaimed on November 12, 2021, alleging, among other things, that the carriers' unilaterally implemented vaccine mandates are a direct violation of the Railway Labor Act. The carriers made no effort to bargain with the unions over their vaccine mandates, or the effects of those mandates, despite the fact that the parties have long been engaged in negotiations for successor agreements, and that all parties have a duty to maintain the status quo in working conditions during such negotiations.

 

The BLET and SMART-TD are actively embroiled in similar lawsuits with three other rail carriers: Amtrak, Norfolk Southern (NS), and Union Pacific (UP). The litigation is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

 

BLET National President Dennis R. Pierce and SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson said two federal judges recently blocked enforcement of vaccine mandates.

 

In related activity, U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove in Frankfort, Kentucky, blocked enforcement of the regulation that new government contracts must include clauses requiring that contractors' employees get vaccinated. BLET and SMART-TD will continue to monitor the case to determine if there is any impact on rail carriers.

 

President Pierce and President Ferguson issued the following joint statement: "The language contained in the Railway Labor Act is clear cut, and the carriers' unilateral implementation of their vaccine mandates without negotiating with the union is a direct violation of the Railway Labor Act. We will continue to stand up for the rights of our members."

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The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen represents nearly 57,000 professional locomotive engineers and trainmen throughout the United States. The BLET is the founding member of the Rail Conference, International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

 

The SMART Transportation Division is comprised of approximately 125,000 active and retired members of the former United Transportation Union, who work in a variety of crafts in the transportation industry.

 

[CNJRoss]

Progressive Railroading, 12/15/21

 

Amtrak, Class Is suspend vaccination mandates

 

 

 

Amtrak yesterday retreated from its COVID-19 vaccination policy that required all employees to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4.

 

SNIP

 

BNSF Railway Co., Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Pacific Railroad have also revisited their vaccination policies since the federal district judge's ruling. All three Class Is are federal contractors, and as such had required employees to be fully vaccinated by the federal deadline.

 

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